• “I went into the preschool room, where one little boy and one little girl were immediately drawn to me. They were mesmerized by the lightness of my hair and skin. Francisco kept putting his arm next to mine, comparing skin tones, while Xiomara just kept on touching my hair. Even though I was annoyed at my supervisor for leaving me in his office, I enjoyed interacting with the children. One thing that I noticed immediately was that all of the little girls have pierced ears and the majority of the little boys were wearing ID bracelets.”
  • “When we arrived at the office of our internship site, I got the impression that the employees at the center we not expecting us. One of the coordinators asked us who we were and told us to wait for one of the other coordinators to arrive.”
  • “Tonight I began my internship at the Center for Human Services in Gettysburg. It was a rather slow evening because none of the students showed up. I was introduced to the evening staff, however, and they explained how things work there. ‘Juana’ was our first contact and she worked out a schedule for us to come in for the nightly ESL and GED classes. She explained that the center was usually not that empty but that it was the prime picking season for the migrants and that many of the students were working long, hard hours in the fields and didn’t have the time to attend classes. I was a little skeptical after leaving because there was really nothing for us to do. In addition the staff seemed to be confused about what we were doing there.”
  • Visit to 2 Camps:
    1. “The workers were very friendly and immediately helped us unload the grocery bags full of food. There were not intimidated by us and I was surprisingly comfortable around them as well. They offered us beers and cigarettes upon arrival. Their house was very clean with a large kitchen containing two refrigerators, food was everywhere and the floors had just recently been mopped.”
    2. “The migrants were all single Mexican men. Many of the workers were wearing baseball hats, one with a marijuana leaf, and many containing NFL teams especially Miami. These workers intimidated me in a whole different way then the previous camp. We would receive constant stares from the men, as they almost made me nervous of the intent of these hungry stares. The farmer was there and quickly herded them into a tiny concrete room with wooden benches. The pesticide speech given by the social worker was more of a theatrical show than any information session. Vulgar language was used which especially made us uncomfortable since all the workers would turn around and stare at us after these little jokes. After the speech, the grower was insistent on getting a copy of the sign-in sheet so that he could prove that he does some good things for his workers. The signs on the walls indicated that the toilets were clogged and couldn’t be used and there was a chart of wages which read….52 cents for a bushel and only 36 cents if an apple falls on the ground.”
  • “I was impressed by the patience the two Hispanic students demonstrated, both with putting forth their best effort with their English and with our broken, rather poor Spanish. I found the time spent at Human Services very rewarding and interesting- you can see instant results. It’s an incredible feeling to watch someone learn- to see the light of understanding click on and a smile of accomplishment spread over their faces.”